The present invention relates to a network system such as the Internet and, more particularly, to user authentication required when a user connects with a network.
Recently, electronic mail, information providing service, and network shopping using the Internet have been widely performed in accordance with the widespread use of personal computers and the maintenance and expansion of network environment.
A user has to connect a user terminal to the Internet in order to send and receive e-mail, browse information, and do network shopping. It is however difficult for the user to directly connect the user terminal to the Internet. Usually he or she connects the terminal thereto through an access point of an Internet service provider.
The above connection states will be described with reference to FIG. 1. Access points (APs) 4A1, 4A2, . . . ; 4B1, . . . proper to Internet service providers (ISPs) 6A, 6B, . . . are connected to the Internet 2. In most cases, the Internet connect rate depends on connect time regardless of distance, whereas the connect rate between an access point AP and a user terminal is based on an ordinary telephone charge system. It is thus general that the access point AP is located for each area (area code) in order to lower a user charge. The Internet service provider ISP is constituted of an authentication server, a mail server, a domain name server, a gateway and the like. A WWW server 10 for providing a home page is also connected to the Internet 2.
The access points APs have a function of connecting user terminals 8A1, 8A2, . . . , which make a contract with their respective providers, to the Internet 2. If an access request is issued from a user terminal, the provider performs authentication using the authentication server to determine whether the user who is gaining access to the Internet is a regular one or not under contract with the provider. The user terminals 8A1, 8A2, . . . under contract can be connected to the Internet through the access points 4A1, 4A2, whereas they cannot be done through the access point 4B1 of Internet service provider 6B because they do not contract themselves to the provider 6B.
Recently, various types of portable user terminal have been developed. Not only a user uses a terminal fixedly installed in an office, but also he or she sometimes wish to get access to the Internet using a portable terminal even when he or she is out or on a business trip. If there are no access points of an Internet service provider to which a user makes a contract near the user, he or she has to connect his or her terminal to the Internet through a remote access point. Since, in this case, a telephone charge increases, the user wishes to temporarily utilize an access point of another nearby Internet service provider to connect with the Internet. Even though an access point of an Internet service provider to which a user makes a contract is near the user, if the access point is busy, he or she wishes to temporarily utilize an access point of another Internet service provider to connect with the Internet. The Internet connection capabilities of Internet service providers are not uniform but vary from provider to provider. It is thus desired that an Internet service provider be selected according to its intended use. When an access point of an Internet service provider to which a user makes a contract is busy, it is sometimes preferable that the user temporarily uses an access point of another Internet service provider.
Conventionally, in order to count the above problem, each user had to contract with a few Internet service providers on an individual basis and pay a basic rate for each provider regardless of whether it was used or not, which became a significant economical burden to the user. What a user contracts with a plurality of Internet service providers means that a plurality of user IDs (electronic mail addresses) and a plurality of passwords are set. In addition to the economical problem, there were a number of inconveniences in which a user had to set a user terminal (dialup connection) for each Internet service provider and could not manage the mail in a batch because of a plurality of mail addresses.
In a conventional electronic mail address, as shown in FIG. 2, alphanumerics X02βT4375 were arranged as a user name before a domain name PATENT.COM (to the left of the @ sign) in accordance with the provisions of an Internet service provider. Such an unfamiliar, hard-to-remember user name was automatically added to the mail address. Though a user name can be registered as he or she wishes, if the same user name has been registered, the user has to prepare another user name and register it again, which is a very troublesome operation.
An object of the present invention is to provide a network system in which a user is able to connect with a network selectively using access points of a number of Internet service providers only if the user contracts with one Internet service provider.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an Internet connection apparatus capable of connecting with a network by performing user authentication even at the request of not only a regular user contracting with a provider but also a user contracting with another provider cooperating with the provider of the regular user.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail address determination system capable of providing a user with an electronic mail address including a user name as the user wishes.